AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 973 - 452 Reshaping the Body with Ashes_2

Chapter 973: Chapter 452 Reshaping the Body with Ashes_2

Previously, due to being tangled with the ashes, he couldn’t properly observe the situation of the convenience store. Now, without the influence of the ashes, he suddenly felt the lingering eerie aura inside the convenience store.

The almost bunker-like structure of the convenience store itself gave a suppressive feeling, and now, the lights inside the store have changed from soft to much colder, imparting a sense of someone clinging to life in their final moments, as a desolate atmosphere quietly spreads.

Some shelves in the store were askew, as if a giant invisible hand had wantonly wreaked havoc. The originally neatly arranged products were scattered all over, broken glass shards glinting with dangerous icy light in the dimness. Food packaging was torn open, crumbs of bread and biscuits strewn about, some even looked as if they were trampled and crushed, which alone gave Lin Yi an ominous premonition.

On some shelves, there were marks resembling claw prints or damage from some blunt instrument, and through his perception, Lin Yi could still sense the concentrated and lingering evil aura within them.

Lin Yi didn’t see any traces of blood around, yet the cold environment was filled with the smell of blood and gunpowder, mixed with the scent of decayed flesh, stirring a queasy sensation in his stomach that nearly made him puke.

"What happened here?!"

"Could the convenience store owner have met with some misfortune too?"

"But..."

But it has only been less than half a day since he last saw the convenience store owner at the Bell Tower. What could possibly have happened?

He initially thought the convenience store owner would be waiting here for him; he even thought when the ashes stuck to him at the door, it was a test from the convenience store owner. But he never expected to be met with such a scene.

The ashes on the door were indeed a trap, and the convenience store owner left after staying for a while.

"What should I do now?!"

He came as promised, yet the convenience store owner wasn’t around, which was really annoying.

I escorted the goods here, only for the Biao Bureau to be wrecked?

Could it really be so?

He really wanted to call out for the convenience store owner; but considering the nature of this place, who knows what he might summon, so he held his tongue.

He gradually calmed his mind.

"Right, don’t be deceived by the convenience store owner’s appearance at the Bell Tower..."

After all, both Old Mo and Class Teacher-039, Class Teacher-040, have said the convenience store owner was injured, so he surely wouldn’t have been as nonchalant as he appeared last night.

Can’t be fooled by that first impression!

So maybe the convenience store owner is somewhere in the store recovering?

Then what’s with that trap?

A warning about the coming of the ’Ashen Apostle’?

But what happens after it arrives?

Lin Yi furrowed his brows, unable to figure it out, but he knew the absence of the convenience store owner indeed posed a problem. Despite some issues, Old Mo’s heart needed to be given to the convenience store owner because, first, it was arranged, and second, he couldn’t just carry Old Mo’s heart around mindlessly, could he?

He still had many dangerous tasks ahead, and running around with Old Mo’s heart could lead to its loss. Worse, what if when his mind was compromised, he mistakenly consumed Old Mo’s heart as a replenishment? That would be an utter fiasco.

Therefore, handing over the heart to the convenience store owner was indeed necessary.

After making up his mind, he bypassed the scattered items on the ground, randomly grabbed three rolls of biscuits from a relatively intact shelf while walking toward the exit of the convenience store, and simultaneously spread out his perception, opportunistically looking for the convenience store owner.

The shelf area was filled with thin mist barely covering his ankles, walking through which gave a feeling akin to traversing the deep mountains and forests.

As Lin Yi looked around at the shelves, the more he looked, the more they felt like ancient tree stumps from the forest carved into them. Combined with the dim, damp atmosphere and light mist, it indeed evoked an indescribable feeling.

It seemed like he had entered a greenhouse artificially crafted to resemble a Jurassic environment.

He followed the direction of the green arrow pointing toward the exit, moving slowly. But while walking, he suddenly heard a faint calling sound.

[...lyset...]

[lyset...]

[...]

Intermittent, strange calling sounds were coming from a certain side of the shelf area, carrying intense allure as they hovered near his ears.

He turned to take a look in that direction and, beneath the swirling mist in the deep, dim shelf area, there seemed to be a massive creature slowly writhing.

[lyset...lyset...]

"Whew—"

Just as Lin Yi spotted that massive creature, an inexplicable gust of wind blew from the unknown void, hitting Lin Yi’s face.

"Boom—"

His vision was suddenly pulled up by an unseen force, as he crossed those distances and landed before that writhing behemoth.

"What is...?!"

What appeared before Lin Yi was a horrifying hill made up of countless piled corpses, like an evil creation birthed from the depths of twisted, dark nightmares, emitting a sickening stench of decay and death.

These corpses weren’t ordinary human remains; each body revealed shocking mutations, their limbs twisted and entangled, as if having experienced endless agony and struggle while alive.

These bodies were haphazardly piled together, some were folded at angles defying logic, as though devoid of any bones.

Some bodies seemed to be fused with each other, growing extra limbs, with those slender, scaly tentacles protruding abruptly from the shoulders or waist, glistening with a moist sheen under the faint phosphorescence, as if still twitching unconsciously...

Some corpses had bloated heads, facial features grimly distorted beyond human semblance, with eyes bulbously inflated like lightbulbs, gazing hollowly into nothingness, mouths agape as if emitting a silent scream...like they were plucked from Edvard Munch’s "The Scream," brutalized, and tossed into the corpse pile.

Some bodies were covered in a thick, green mucus-like secretion, exuding a pungent odor mixed with rotting flesh, poison liquid, and unknown substances, which caused Lin Yi to feel dizzy and his stomach churn at first smell.

This mucus slowly flowed along the contours of the bodies, pooling into glowing puddles on the ground, resembling the malevolent blood from another dimension.

At the summit of this corpse pile was an exceptionally gigantic body, its form as colossal as a mountain, its limbs robust like a giant python, covered in a layer of hard scales shining with a metallic luster. Its neck was long, and its head buried inside the pile, its outline indistinguishable.

But its body bore countless lumps, whose appearance made Lin Yi feel utterly familiar...looking decidedly similar to one of the tentacles of the "Angel" from the black tide.

Yet, overall, it wasn’t a precise match...at other locations on the body, some lumps had opened cracks, within which rested a bloodshot eye.

That eye seemed to be filled with molten gold, radiating an otherworldly chill, creating a stark contrast with its grotesque swollen exterior.

Some cracks on the lumps remained tightly shut, but there leaked a sticky black liquid from within, resembling the greasy substance perpetually seeping from the little girl. Lin Yi pondered if there was any link between the two, as the liquid dripped onto the corpses below, sizzling, seemingly corroding everything it came into contact with...

He felt the surrounding light was utterly dim, and the air seemed to be suffused with an invisible oppression. Though the corpse didn’t have many eyeballs, he felt like being watched by countless unseen eyes.